The Changes of Life
by MethodicEarth
Summary: High School AU, all medical facts taken from the Mayo Clinic website. When life throws Lovino Vargas a curve, he's completely thrown off balance. In the events of one day, everything that he loves and aspires to is turned on its head. With the new girl there to support him, he has to relearn himself and decide what he wants to do with his life.
1. Chapter 1

Lovino Vargas and his twin brother, Feliciano Vargas, had always been fairly popular children. Being from Italian descent, they were both quite charming from a young age. It didn't help that their grandfather, Romulus, whom they stayed with most of their lives, was somewhat a womanizer, even in his old age. As a result, they were especially popular with the girls when they reached high school age.

Physically, they were both very handsome. They would have been identical if not for their eyes, which turned out to be the only way people could tel them apart for the longest time. They both had smooth olive skin littered with freckles, dark brown, curly hair with tinges of red that would be straightened out, and rogue curls that stuck out at odd angles no matter how they tried to flatten it. Lovino's eyes were a beautiful mix between green and brown while Feliciano's were a vibrant green.

By the time they reached high school, their personalities were quite different. Feliciano was a teacher's pet, with a permanently optimistic outlook on everything and an insatiable need to make everyone smile. Lovino could be stereotyped as a bad boy, with a sailor's mouth, an aloof personality, and a furious passion for soccer. Despite the stark differences between the two, they both did exceedingly well in their classes. Lovino took Spanish, with its smooth similarities to Italian. while Feliciano elected to take German, a guttural language that was quite difficult to handle with the previous knowledge of a Latin language.

Now, in their first year of high school, they encountered their first new person. Up until then, they had grown up everyone they knew at school. The new girl's name was Natasha Arlovskaya. She had just moved to the quiet town with her older brother and sister. She almost immediately stuck out, both physically and personality wise. She had long, dirty blonde hair with bangs that almost covered her dark blue eyes. Her skin was much paler than the other childrens', and she was fairly chubby despite any and all efforts to exercise daily. She was emotionally cold and distant to the other children, preferring to sit alone when she had the choice. After many failed attempts to carry a conversation on her past, many children started teasing her for a plethora of reasons.

The next year, before their first year of high school was over, the twins had their 15th birthday on the 17th of March. They were the oldest ones in their year, which only seemed to heighten their popularity. During that summer, just before they entered their second year of high school, Lovino made it onto the school's varsity soccer team. As a result, he had to practice with the rest of the team in the last few weeks before school in order to be prepared for the first game of the year. Granted, he wasn't the star player, but being able to play so early would help his chances of being noticed in years to come.

One day, in the middle of practice, he collapsed on the field. With a high fever and severe nausea, dehydration was the immediate assumption. An ambulance was called and his grandfather was notified on the way to the hospital. While there, after swollen joints developed even after a saline drip had been started, the doctor decided to run some blood tests, having Lovino stay a few days. During that time, he received cards from his teammates, wishing him a speedy recovery. He even got one giant card from the coaches along with some chocolates. He easily charmed the nurses and befriended the doctor, telling them of his life dream of becoming a soccer star and playing soccer as much as he can. His fever never really went down, even increasing along with fatigue that wouldn't go away.

Three days after his initial admittance into the hospital, he watched the doctor talk to his grandfather and brother. Romulus kept his face stony and unfeeling, something that Lovino had only seen when talking to business associates over the phone. At one point, Feliciano's face went from worried to surprised to ready to cry in the blink of an eye. This wasn't anything new, he had always been a bit of a crybaby. What worried Lovino was how his grandfather's face fell at the same time. Leaving the two and coming to Lovino's room, the doctor took a breath before repeating his words to Lovino.

"Lovino, I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this. You have an autoimmune disease called Lupus. It doesn't usually show at such a young age, but it is fairly common. Lovino, I know you wanted to be a soccer star, but with this disease, it's going to be pretty much impossible. See, the most common symptoms of Lupus is joint pain and stiffness, fatigue, fever, shortness of breath, and rashes. These will flare up periodically and then fade away, but they will never fully go away. There is medicine to help with the symptoms, but there is no cure. You can probably tell that I've already told your family. I want to keep you for a few more days until your fever goes down to a safe range and I'd like you to come in if any new symptoms appear."

Lovino had been avoiding the man's eyes the entire time. Clutching his blanket, he choked back tears. In a breathy voice, he asked, "Why did this happen to me? I've been healthy all my life. I've eaten right, exercised, visited the doctor on time, gotten my shots. How would I get this disease? Does my brother have it?"

The doctor sighed and sat on a short stool at the end of the bed, distancing himself from Lovino. Folding his hands together, he said, "Lupus happens as a mix of genetics and environmental conditions. Your case could have been triggered by a large amount of stress or a recent infection. Your brother doesn't seem to have it at the moment, but it may develop later on in his life. This didn't happen because of something you did. It was just chance. I understand that this is difficult for you, but this is nothing that you could have prevented. You'll need to wear sunscreen or covering clothing when you go outside since sunlight can cause a flare as well as other symptoms. You should also make sure to get enough sleep at night, which might be difficult since you're going to school again soon. Your grandfather will notify the school of your condition."

The man kept talking, but Lovino ignored every word coming out of his mouth. He nodded when he was supposed to, but his thoughts raged war with his emotions. Just as he was learning who he should be, everything he wanted to be was ripped away. His life goal was within his reach and it was ripped up like paper in front of him. Fighting back tears, he questioned why he wanted to cry. Maybe they were tears of anger or loss. Maybe they were connected to this sudden hollow feeling in his chest. Something told him that the hollow feeling wasn't going away any time soon.

After blabbering for a little while longer, the doctor left. Visiting times were over, so Lovino was left by himself. Hours flew by in a matter of minutes. Dinner was served, but any appetite was gone. He knew when the lights were turned off that he should sleep, but despite his exhaustion, he lie awake until the early hours. The next morning, he forced himself to eat to look normal, but it felt like he was shoving food down his throat. The nurses brought him a strange new medicine to take, telling him that it was medication for lupus. Taking it with water, he rolled onto his side and waited for the day to go by.

No one visited him that day. It was a Thursday, the first day back at school. Of course no one would visit, but the next day would be a half day at the school. However, the only one who showed up directly after school the next day was his brother. They talked for an hour or so before Feliciano left with a friend from his German class. Lovino had a bowl of canned soup for lunch along with pre-packaged crackers and water. He was able to get a few gulps of soup and a cracker down before feeling sick to his stomach and having to stop trying.

Lying on his side after pushing the sickening lunch to the side, he prepared to take a nap. Nothing else was going to happen for the rest of the day. Maybe he would be allowed to go outside later, or his grandfather might bring him books after work, but for now he had nothing to do.

That is, until he heard little light taps at the door.

Turning around, he glared at the person in the doorway before registering the chubby blonde girl leaning against the frame.


	2. Chapter 2

In an effort to hide his surprise at the unexpected visitor, Lovino pulled his face into a glare. He spat, "What do you want?" When he had wished for a visitor, he had meant people from his team. Even people from his Spanish class would have been preferable to the weird new girl. He vaguely remembered his grandfather saying something about working what life gives you, but that didn't matter to him now.

Natasha rolled her eyes, roughly throwing a bag onto his legs. "Your brother told me your schedule, so I got your homework for you. No one else was going to, and catching up can be difficult when you're sick. Plus, it's probably the only thing I could get you without being flat-out rejected."

As she turned on her heel to leave him alone, he couldn't stop himself from calling out. He didn't want to be left alone any longer, even if it meant having to converse with the last person he wanted to see. Tilting her head towards him, she froze halfway out of the door. He bit his tongue and blurted, "Please don't go. You're Natasha, right? Well, you're the only one besides my brother who's visited me. Would you... Would you mind.. Hanging out for a while?"

She seemed genuinely surprised at the suggestion, obviously having expected him to say something completely different. Maybe a jab at her weight or nationality, possibly even being told not to come back. The scenario of being asked to stick around seemed new to her, despite having been at the school for a year. Ignoring the nagging voices telling her to leave him anyway, she sat at the edge of his bed. His legs weren't long enough to reach the end, but she ended up being quite close to his feet. After sitting quietly for a moment, she turned towards him. Avoiding eye contact, she managed to mumble loud enough, "Um... What do people do when they... 'Hang out'?"

Lovino stared at her in disbelief before starting to explain. "Well, mostly they talk about stuff, play video or card games, sharing things that they're interested in. You know, stuff you do with friends. You do have friends, don't you?" With that statement, Natasha's face fell. She turned her face away from Lovino, keeping him from seeing the little emotions that flooded her face.

"I do have friends. We used to play after school almost every day." The melancholy in her voice made Lovino want to smack himself. Of course he would forget that she had moved at a time like this. Thinking quickly of a way to solve things, he started probing. "Do you still speak to them?" She nodded, trying hard to keep herself composed. "I try to. They all live in Minsk, so most of the time I have to call on weekends when they're just waking up. It's kind of difficult to do anything else over the computer, especially since I have to share with my family."

Deciding to abruptly change the subject, Lovino searched for a common ground with her. "Do you play any sports, Natasha?" Her name rolled off his tongue with an unintentional accent. The effect was almost instant, a soft blush creeping over her cheeks. It was so common to see this reaction that Lovino didn't even make a comment on it.

"Well, I do gymnastics at least twice a week. I'm close to reaching the fourth level, which is when it starts being competitive. I guess it isn't as 'cool' as futbol, though." Using air quotes as best as she could, Natasha made it clear she wasn't terribly interested in the sport. Lovino tilted his head, obviously unfamiliar with the pronunciation of futbol. "Was that accent from your home language," he asked. "It didn't sound like how they say it in Spanish or Italian." She nodded in response. "Belorussian. My apologies, I'm still getting used to speaking with an english accent." Mentally making a note of their conversation so far, Lovino decided to try and do what no one else in his class could do; Get to know about Natasha.

"You said that you're with family, right? Who are you staying with?" He posed the question as innocently as he could, for once being genuinely interested in the answer. Natasha sighed, leaning back. Finding nothing to lean on, she shifted her position to lean on the foot rest at the end of the bed. "Well," she started, "I have a strange family setup. See, I have a brother and a sister. My older sister is in Germany with her fiancé, and I moved here to live with my older brother and his boyfriend after my father died. However, my brother's boyfriend's family tends to come over a lot, so we pretty much consider them family."

Knowing the feeling of being overwhelmed by the family of a sibling's significant other, Lovino nodded in response. Even his grandfather had a tendency to bring over women, most of whom he knew by name. They were nice enough, but he never got to spend much time with them before they left.

A question left Lovino's mouth without his knowledge. "Why are you visiting me? You don't even know if what I have is contagious." He stared into space as he said it, quickly focusing on her face as he waited for an answer. With a shrug, Natasha started saying, "Well, one would think that if you were contagious that I wouldn't have been allowed to visit. I think your brother said that it was Lupus. I looked it up in a medical book at home. It usually isn't contagious or fatal, so I think we're both fine in the long run."

A nurse stuck her head into the room to tell them that visiting hours were over and that Lovino would be discharged soon. With a shrug, Natasha stood and picked up her backpack. Jotting something on a scrap of paper, she folded it and handed it to him. "See you on Monday, right? Text me if you need to talk at all." Darting out of the room before he could respond, Lovino stared at the paper in his hand. The nurse came in and started disconnecting all of the equipment attached to his arms, sticking bandaids where needles had been. When she left to let him change into everyday clothes, he shoved the paper into his pants pocket. Resolving to text Natasha when he got home, he let the memory of the slip fade away in favor of the excitement of being able to see all of his soccer friends again on Monday.


End file.
